Behind the scenes: Metal Gear Solid 2

Kevin Lomax writes "GameSpot has posted another one of its Final Hours stories, this time detailing the development story behind Metal Gear Solid 2 for the PlayStation 2. They did one on Black & White earlier this year and this one looks just as good with lots of interesting quotes from the developers in Japan about how they built the game."

Comments

Software Development

[1alpha7]

"You see this callus on my finger?" Kojima asks. "Well, that's from me using so many highlighters to go through all the bugs. I use up at least two highlighter pens a day."

Now that's thorough software development.

1Alpha7

Re:Software Development

[dimator]

that's from me using so many highlighters to go through all the bugs

I bet he spends a lot of time cleaning his monitor too!

A little spoilage with my thoughts on MGS2

[DragonPup]

Honestly, the story of MGS2 seemed to...well, fall a little loose as the game wrapped up. It went from really nice in the majority of the game but became to a tad too philiosophical for it's own good near the end.

Also it seemed that some of the neater things(the sword, the partner mode) were SERIOUSLY underused and both were so cool!

Oh, and I disagree with the thought in the article that Raiden was 'overly feminane looking', nancy might be a better for him :-)

All in all, I still enjoyed it greatly. Great game, maybe we'll even see a sequel. One can hope

-Henry

Re:A little spoilage with my thoughts on MGS2

[drinkypoo]

It went from really nice in the majority of the game but became to a tad too philiosophical for it's own good near the end.

Welcome to anime. Sure it's not all like that, but there's a vast array of anime which gets preachy near its terminus, or even sooner.

Oh, and I disagree with the thought in the article that Raiden was 'overly feminane looking', nancy might be a better for him :-)

Anime is full of guys who are gay, or look like they are. Bubblegum crisis has both.

Sounds like a Microsoft idea...

[Anonymous Coward]

Kojima once had what he thought was a great concept: designing a product where the player would be forced to buy a new copy of the game every time the player character died. "As I said, I have some very impractical ideas," he admits with a grin. Imagine if everytime Windows crashed, Bill Gates got a dollar, he'd be a billio- err.... Hey, he does!

The game itself

[SilentChris]

Hollywoodworthy, if there was ever such a word. The script is negligble (like most Hollywood scripts, come to think of it), but the graphics and "camerawork" are impecable. If you play action games in the least, you owe it to yourself to try it.

XBox pushing the envelop, GameCube's standing by with classic fun, PS2's exemplary sophomore year: it's going to be a great Christmas to be a gamer.

MGS:2 is a work of art...

[EvlPenguin]

...too bad that doesn't make a fun game. I swear I spent more time with my hands off the controller, watching a cutscene of some sort, than actually _playing_ the damn game. It's all beautifully done, but there's just too much inactivity for what is supposed to be an action game.

The action that it does have is superb, and the storyline is definitly the best in the series. But overall, it just wasn't as satisfying and FUN as the original MGS (for PS1). I don't really have any incentive or urge to play it over again.

Maybe I was just expecting too much, but I must say that I'm dissapointed. If I had to give it a rating, it would be 8.5/10. Oh well. Back to Grand Theft Auto III.

Re:MGS:2 is a work of art...

[The_Messenger]

It's funny -- I didn't play the original MGS very much, but after finishing MGS2, I started a new MGS game. Wow, it sure gives you a good perspective on how much the industry has advanced. Not that MGS isn't a good game... but the gaming systems are practically identical, so playing the two back-to-back really lets you compare the PSX's and PS2's respective capabilities. The sense of "depth" afforded by the PS2's lighting engine is probably the biggest factor, after the sharpness of the polygons, of course.

You guys may have seen this before, but I'll link to an old interview with head MGS2 weenie himself, Koji-boy. His comments are fun to read after immersing myself in the game for the past week.

And as long as we're tossing out links, here are a few relevant Penny Arcades. :-)

And All Through The Hizouse
Again, For The First Time

(And don't forget to pay for those belly laughs, now!)

Re:Would anyone else....

[Zach Baker]

"Would anyone else kill to be making games for a living?"

You say that, but then you're surprised that there are so few worthwhile entry-level positions in the game industry!

I think that's easy to say when MGS2 is the first thing on your mind. But seriously, would you commit murder to be one of the guys Ion Storm hired to clean up Daikatana so they could ship it? I mean, that's definitely considered making games for a living, but would you really kill for that job?

Mullet, ho!

[Pengunea]

Can I get the specs on Solid Snake's mullet? I'm thinking of tricking out mine and want to see what's out on the market. I've already overclocked it a bit. It's halfway down my back.

Too much Space Ghost has rotted my brain!

MGS2 is impressive, but not a great game

[dangermouse]

I bought a copy yesterday, and have been playing for most of the day today... Visually, the game is stunning, despite the occasional flicker. The storyline is even moderately interesting, which in the realm of video games means it's a "deep" and "involving" "plot". The dialogue still bites, but it's head and shoulders above the original MGS.

Speaking of the original MGS, this is the same game with an upgraded shiny factor. I bought it pretty much because of that, so I'm not disappointed... but if you're looking for any major changes, forget about it. This game also features about the same frustration level... sometimes a room is difficult because the controls are so overloaded, or the camera angle bites, or your timing has to be absolutely perfect.

All things considered, though, I'm having a fairly good time with it. Not nearly as much fun as with GTA3, though, and I'm beginning to wonder what else there is to look forward to on the PS2.

Re:Would anyone else....

[dwlemon]

That used to be the case, but I'm afraid it's above my head. My poor self can't afford a four year degree right now and my maths education doesn't beyond "Intro to Calculus" so I'll probably settle for some much crappier programming position (if I can find one)

I'm the kind of guy who never uses a weekend for anything but studying (a nerd) and I don't plan to "settle down" .. ever. So my lifestyle fits the game programming regiment, I just don't have the damn creds.

It's being done

[Animats]

There's some toy on the market this Xmas that requires an ongoing supply of "powerup cards". I don't expect it to be a success, but if it had been Pokemon-based last year...

Brute force pogramming

[cvanaver]

I find this quote from the article interesting:

"One way to solve a production problem is to bring on more people," matter-of-factly states Matsuhana. A core team of 35 to 40 employees had been working on the game since 1999, but during the final months of development the team would balloon to 70 members, most of whom were brought over from other development teams at Konami."

They actually hit a deadline by adding more developers onto a project? I don't know much about game programming, but in business systems development that would be a miracle to say the least. I wonder what is different between game programming and system development?

Re:Brute force pogramming

[Anthy]

It might be more to do with culture. Japanese work culture vs American work culture. There tends to be much less "egos" and "I want to do it THIS way" involved. So if you just add more people they'll just do extra work instead of going, "I think we need to change this important part of the game."

Re:Brute force pogramming

[Zach Baker]

They actually hit a deadline by adding more developers onto a project? I don't know much about game programming, but in business systems development that would be a miracle to say the least.

At a company like KCEJ, it seems many programming tasks are handled in a very bureaucratic, top-down way. A significant amount of designers and planners manage and schedule tasks. Since whoever is added to a team will have little knowledge of how the project works, it's more important to hire motivated programmers than skillful ones -- the article mentioned about half were college students. They don't communicate much; they just keep at it until they complete their well-defined tasks, therefore Brooks's Law doesn't really apply. Brutal, though. I suspect most Americans would tend to flake out under such circumstances.

Re:Brute force pogramming

[drinkypoo]

"One way to solve a production problem is to bring on more people," matter-of-factly states Matsuhana. A core team of 35 to 40 employees had been working on the game since 1999, but during the final months of development the team would balloon to 70 members, most of whom were brought over from other development teams at Konami."

They actually hit a deadline by adding more developers onto a project?

I'm afraid it doesn't say they added more developers, it says they added more people to the team at large. While they do say "development teams" this doesn't mean "developer teams", it just means teams in charge of developing a game - That could well include artists, sound people, storyboarders, et cetera.

Video Game Plots

[dswensen]

You know, nearly every time Slashdot runs a video game story, I see a spate of posts complaining about the plot of this game or that. Usually "plot" is in quotes, signifying the player's deep dissatisfaction with the story, or the plot is mentioned only to vilify its mindlessness, simplicty, predictability, or staleness.

What I'd like to know -- and this is an honest question, not sarcasm -- if anyone out there has encountered a really good video game plot in their time, and if so, what their favorites are. So many video game stories seem to leave people wanting more -- what game plots comprise the standards to which others should be held?

Re:Video Game Plots

[BadmanX]

In no particular order:

Chrono Cross: The bad guy has a very good plan, makes it work for himself flawlessly, and almost gets away with it. I was stunned at how well the villain's actions were thought out.

Ultima VII: The Guardian comes to Britannia and starts talking to people in their minds. He finds it very easy to convince some of them to do his bidding and construct a gate through which he can physically enter Britannia.

Myth and Myth II: Despite the fact that the plot only advances during the between-mission briefings, these games managed to convince me that there was a stupendously large war between the forces of Light and Dark going on, and I was in charge.

Grim Fandango: Yes, it's a horribly linear adventure game with some illogical puzzles. But the storyline was a superb blend of 40's gangster movies with the Mexican culture's concept of the Land of the Dead. I particularly liked how the gangsters killed people...after all, how do you kill a dead person?

If I think of any more I'll add them.

Re:Don't forget the toys!

[Graymalkin]

Actually Harrison Ford and co DO get paid for their likenesses to be used on toys and whatnot. Part of the contract they sign says that they get a mad fat check every time some shit comes out with their likeness on it. Same goes for most actors whom appear as toys. Thats why you don't see huge blockbuster movies on the big three networks very often. The network has to pay the studio who has to pay the actors and whomever else was contracted.

The truck have started to move...

[Ukab the Great]

Anyone remember the original Metal gear for Nintendo? That kicked ass for its time--it was one of the few original nintendo games and actually had a plot. And the bad translations from Japanese were somewhat amusing, too "The truck have started to move!". The really freaky thing is that there are people my age who have kids who play the sequels to games that I played as a kid. It's a good thing that emulators like MAME exist, otherwise future generations of gamers who ten years from now play "Metal Gear 30" or "Golgo 13 III" (I can only dream) would never truly understand where their games fit into the whole plotline. Without MAME, how many kids playing the current line of nintendo games would know that Donkey Kong was originally evil and that the only thing Mario was good for was jumping over barrels?

Western influence

[Spankophile]

Did anybody else find it strange that a child "growing up in Japan" played "cowboys and Indians?"

HalfLife

[crisco]

You played the plot. Even the alien settings at the end fit pretty good. Brilliant game.

Game vs. Business App programming

[Marasmus]

In game programming, you have a SIGNIFICANTLY higher percentage of algorithm-related problems (mathematical efficiency, adequate precision to make this texture map properly on this wireframe, etc), whereas in the business app world, most late-breaking problems are behavioral or logic problems that the end user/customer/project manager doesn't like. The two types of problems are drastically different to fix.

Algorithms for sound, video, timing, or object/model/sprite placement are often very isolated (this algo is only used in this scene to time the action between hero A's sword and monster B's head), and can be worked on without a thorough understanding of the rest of the program. Fresh blood can be brought in solely to fix the functions that sync 'facial' movement with voice. It's a LOT harder to do that sort of staffing-swap when it comes to a business app which doesn't have the (customer's) "right" behaviour when you shift-click-drag over a certain box of text while in print-preview mode only. :) Those sorts of behavioral problems are difficult to solve if you aren't entrenched in the design process of the business application.

It basically comes down to the classic left-brain, right-brain divide. :)